


Mirror image

by plikki



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Identity Reveal, Kwami Swap, Parallel Universes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 08:40:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29257599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plikki/pseuds/plikki
Summary: Adrien happens to meet a version of his partner from another universe. The same thing happens to Marinette. What if their other selves know a little more than them and let something slip?
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 38
Kudos: 221





	Mirror image

**Author's Note:**

> So recently I've had people asking to see Chat and Lady Noir together and completely unrelatedly, Ladybug and Mister Bug. I decided to combine the two and stir up some trouble in a trademark reveal from me. Have fun!

The last thing Adrien expected to happen when he was heading to their meeting place for patrol was for Ladybug to fall on top of him out of thin air. Except, it wasn’t Ladybug, but Lady Noire which wasn’t possible since he was using Plagg!

“M’lady?” he asked, when they managed to right themselves, fear lacing his voice. 

“Bugaboy, is that you?” She asked, looking at him with surprise. She didn’t seem as surprised to see him there as she was by the way he looked. He laughed in spite of his panic at the unexpected meeting. It had been a while she’d last called him that.

“Yeah. How.. how did this happen? Is Plagg ok?”

“Oh, the little rascal is perfectly fine. This is Fluff’s doing this time.” she said with a sigh. “We walked into the burrow-portal and lost each other and where we were, apparently. Except we didn’t travel in time, but more like a parallel universe, from the looks of it.”

“We?”

“Yeah, you and me. Although you looked a little different when I last saw you,” she said with a laugh. There was something different about her, she looked more relaxed in spite of the unusual situation. “You on the other hand seem like this is not something unusual for you.”

“It happened once, we ended up with switched kwamis. It was a disaster,” he said, shaking his head. 

“Really? Why?”

“Well, because I’m not made to be Ladybug, of course,” he replied. “You’re the mastermind, the real genius behind this. I’m a good sidekick, or I hope so, but nothing more.”

This was when he finally saw the mirth leave her eyes.

“You have got to be kidding me. Why would you think so? You’ve been doing great as Mister Bug in my universe. Sometimes I have more crazy ideas about how to use the Lucky Charms than you, but we work great together. And also, I’m pretty sure if my universe you hears you refer to me as a sidekick, you’ll get a beating. You’ve always called me your second in command.”

Huh. He hadn’t expected that. 

“Am I the guardian as well?” He asked.

“No, why would you be with Fu there?” She asked confused.

“Oh. We lost Fu here,” he said, feeling a pang at the memory of that battle. “Ladybug had to take over from him.”

“Wow. That sounds rough. I’m sorry, Adrien,” she said, a hand on his shoulder in a gesture of sympathy. But he barely felt it.

“You know?” he whispered. He could feel his head spinning. What was this parallel universe that was so different from their own?

“Oh, you don’t?” She said, taking a step back in surprise. 

“No, that has been the rule from the very beginning.”

“Oh, we had a similar rule at first, but you didn’t take it as seriously. You and Fu have an interesting relationship,” she said, shaking her head with a fond smile. “Especially once we got together, it didn’t seem practical at all. You lasted only a day before going to him to beg him to let us reveal.”

“Together? You and me? As in… “ He hadn’t expected that pain that shot through him. How was it possible for them to get everything wrong in this universe?”

“Oh, no. Don’t tell me you aren’t there yet?” She said, trying to hide her incredulous expression, but he could see it.

“It doesn’t seem possible at all,” he said, looking down dejected. “You’re in love with someone else.”

“Ha. Yeah, I thought so as well, before it turned out it was you all along.” 

Their eyes met for a panicked second as they realised what a gaffe they’d made. This went beyond simply comparing their lives and commiserating or something. This was big.

“No way,” he said. He could feel the elation fight to break through his panic. Was it possible this was true for him and his lady? Would she kill him if he even suggested it?

“Oops. I’m pretty sure this wasn’t meant to happen. I better go back before I cause more trouble. But first I have to find you. Preferably before you find my counterpart and do something similar."

“Let’s go,” Adrien said. Yeah, doing something was better than getting lost in his head. Hopefully, they’d be able to get this fixed. 

*****

Marinette hadn’t expected her life to turn 180 degrees in the space of an evening. Not when she was heading to patrol and everything seemed normal until Mister Bug dropped out of thin air in front of her. 

They looked at each other in amazement. It was a little like looking into a mirror, the spots, the yo-yos, the masks around the eyes, it was very disconcerting. Of course, the blond mop of hair was nothing like her dark pigtails. 

“Chat?” She asked, belatedly realising that this might mean nothing to him.

“Who?”

“Chat Noir, you’re Chat Noir.”

“Oh, no. I only have a Lady Noire and unfortunately I’ve misplaced her,” he told her with a grin. 

“Are you from the future?” She asked. She could recognise the portal he’d come through.

“Doesn’t seem like it. You look to be around my age. And since I’ve never seen you with Tikki, I’m pretty sure it’s a parallel universe where we had our kwamis switched from the very beginning.”

“Wow. I’ve seen you as Mister Bug once,” she admitted. She couldn't explain how jarring it was to see him like that again for some reason.

“Ha, that must have been fun.”

“Not so much. We had a bit of trouble with the switched roles.” That was an understatement.

“We’ve always worked together just fine like that,” he said, shrugging. 

“Are you the guardian as well as Mister Bug?” She asked before she could stop herself. He didn’t seem as tired and troubled as she felt. She knew she shouldn’t ask too much about that other universe unless she wanted to cause trouble but she was too tempted. Maybe it wasn’t the same as meddling in the future or the past so she needn't worry.

“What? No! Master Fu is the guardian, why would I… Oh.” He said, his face falling.

“Yeah, it happened,” she said, feeling tears prick her eyes as she remembered having to say goodbye to her mentor. 

“I’m so sorry, Marinette. That must have been rough.”

Her head shot up, sadness forgotten when she heard her name from his mouth.

“But you know!”

“You don’t?” He asked, looking at her perplexed.

“No, this is against the rules!”

“Oh, the rules. We crossed that bridge when you became my girlfriend. It wasn’t practical,” he said, shrugging. As if it was nothing. “How do you deal with the secrecy then?”

“Girlfriend?” She spluttered. Oh for goodness sake! How did she end up with Chat no matter what - an apocalyptic future, a parallel universe. 

“Oh. Damn. Of course, you don’t know that you’ve been in love with me all along,” he said. 

Another record scratch sounded in Marinette’s ears. No. No. 

“Adrien?” She whispered. As she looked him over, it made so much sense. She should have guessed that time why Mister Bug had this unnerving effect on her. He looked just like him!

“Oh, shoot. This… is bad, right?” He said with a grimace.

“But how? When we were together in that future, the world almost ended,” she said over her wildly beating heart. He took a step back as if she’d slapped him.

‘What?”

“I got to fight the akumatised you in the future. You told me it all happened because we were together.”

“And you believed that? Hell, no way! We’re happy and in love and nothing catastrophic has happened.”

“But… Hawk Moth!”

“We’re doing a good job hiding from him,” he said, as if this explained everything. “Probably something else went wrong in that future.”

“Wow,” she said. She’d been haunted by those memories, feeling her heart break every time she looked at Chat. And for what? For nothing?

“Look, if you’re the guardian you make the rules. So you don’t need to worry about that. Trust me, it’s not knowing and being together that can cause trouble. It sounds like you have it bad with the opposite.”

This was when they heard footsteps and turned around to find two black-clad figures approaching them. Marinette blinked at the surreal vision of Chat and her as Lady Noire next to each other and was pretty sure her expression was close to his when he looked at her and Mister Bug.

“That’s surreal,” he said with a cautious smile that was 100% Adrien. Oh. Did he know, she wondered?

They were interrupted by the reunion between their other selves. They both looked with gaping mouths as Mister Bug and Lady Noire flew into each other’s arms and kissed. 

Wow. This wasn’t something she’d expected to see from the outside like, ever. She looked away, feeling like an intruder, but then her eyes met his. Chat, Adrien. She almost doubled over under the longing that filled her heart. She wanted what they had in that parallel universe. It seemed so effortless and wonderful.

“Ah, sorry, that must seem weird,” Lady Noire said when she finally managed to let go of her boyfriend.

“Just another level of weird added to this already crazy situation,” Chat said, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. 

“Ok, kitty, are we ready to go home and leave these two to deal with this on their own? We wreaked enough havoc, I think,” Mister Bug said as he looked at them. 

“Sounds like a good idea. Good luck,” Lady Noire said with an amused smile as they turned around and hand in hand stepped through the portal, disappearing. 

“Wow,” Marinette muttered under her breath.

“That was something,” he said smiling awkwardly. 

“I have a feeling Lady Noire didn’t let the cat out of the bag?” She said, tilting her head to the side.

“Well, she did tell me they know and we saw… yeah, they are very much together.”

“Not surprisingly Mister Bug’s blunder went a little farther. Adrien,” she said pointedly.

“Oh, ha-ha.” Unsurprisingly he looked hardly troubled by this turn of events. “How strange. Am I the only one still in the dark then?”

“Do you want to stay that way or…?” She said teasingly but then squeaked when he scooped her up in his arms.

“You know I don’t really care because I already know you love me,” he said, surprisingly serious. Her heart betrayed her although her secret was out anyway. It was beating so fast she got worried. But if being hugged by Adrien made her swoon and hugging Chat was the nicest thing in the world, the two combined had the power to completely ruin her.

“I have a feeling you can make a good guess,” she said, trying to look unperturbed and failing. 

“Marinette,” he said instantly, eyes on her. He’d never ceased to surprise her. She grinned. Their other selves were right, it was them who made this complicated.

“Right on the first try,” she said. 

“Do I get a reward?” he asked with a smirk. 

“You do,” she said and finally did what she’d been dying to do forever, but especially since witnessing that moment between Mister Bug and Lady Noir minutes earlier. She kissed him and practically melted in his arms. 

Marinette felt relief that they were no longer alone to navigate the mess that the fight against Hawk Moth was. She felt happiness that they’d found each other. But most of all she felt love, so much love, it was unreal. 

And if there was one thing she was certain of it was that if they wanted this enough, they could make it work. She’d seen that in action. 

As she came back for another kiss after they shared a shy smile, she sent a silent thank you to their parallel universe selves. They’d given them the best gift of showing them that it was possible. 


End file.
